Still time to have your say on Air Quality Action Plan

There is still another week to have your say on how air quality could be improved across the borough.

Richmond Council has been consulting with residents and stakeholders on its proposed Air Quality Action Plan (AQAP) over the past five weeks.

The proposed AQAP is a statutory document that outlines how the Council will work to improve air quality across the borough.

Proposals include:

Setting up a steering group with Council and community representatives, to help ensure that measures are put in place to improve air quality across the borough.

Identifying the key causes of traffic congestion and pollution ’hotspots’ and to determine effective measures for improving traffic flow through those areas using detailed air quality and traffic management modelling tools;

Providing guidance to developers on the impact of development on air quality and ensure that approved schemes include effective mitigation and maximise the opportunity to improve infrastructure for sustainable transport options;

Encouraging the uptake of low emission vehicles through expansion of the electric vehicle charging infrastructure;

Formalising anti-idling enforcement in order to minimise emission from vehicles around key locations such as schools, level crossings, taxi-ranks, air quality focus areas and hot-spots;

Continue working with schools, parents and students to improve awareness of air quality and to optimise parent's and children’s desire and opportunity to adopt sustainable travel options

Richmond Council Cabinet Member for Environment, Cllr Pamela Fleming, said:

“Ensuring we address the issue of air quality is one of the most important challenges for the Council.

“The evidence is clear that poor air quality and pollution can have serious health implications for people in Richmond upon Thames, in particular those suffering from underlying medical conditions.

“It’s important to recognise that poor air quality is a responsibility of us all. We need to work together, with external partners to tackle the problem head on.

“If you haven’t yet had your say I want to urge you to do so before the deadline.”